Guillermo Alvarado Ajcuc sentenced to 25 years to life for raping, strangling woman

Guillermo Alvarado Ajcuc in court in Riverhead on Tuesday, July 15, 2014, where he was sentenced to 25 years to life in the 2012 rape and strangulation of Mirian Yohanna Garcia Mansilla, 29. Photo Credit: James Carbone

Suffolk County Court Judge John Toomey Jr. imposed the maximum sentence, for second-degree murder, citing the coldbloodedness of the attack. Toomey said Alvarado had to remove a belt from his pants, place it around Garcia's neck, and hold it there for a "relatively long period of time."

Garcia and Alvarado encountered each other at El Sabor Latino the night of May 6, 2012, according to testimony during the trial. When Garcia was thrown out of the Riverhead bar because she was drunk, Alvarado followed her into the parking lot.

There, in bushes behind the building, he attacked her, pulling off some of her clothing and raping her, Suffolk Assistant District Attorney Glenn Kurtzrock told jurors.

Garcia, described by relatives as athletic, fought back, but was overcome, the prosecutor said.

Tuesday, Powers said in court that Alvarado was so intoxicated during the encounter that he had only a vague recollection of it.

She did not comment after the sentencing.

A jury convicted Alvarado on May 30. The trial was the first in Suffolk County in which jurors saw a videotaped interrogation by police of a suspect. In it, Alvarado quickly admitted what he had done and how he did it.